I would personally love to hear Rob's opinion on:Twilight PlanetFallDon't know where he'd get a cheap copy though, I only have my one copy, and amazon is selling them used for $217 (amazes me the price for the book is so high now that it's been out of print a few years). I think I might be a bit biased in my choice though...

If you liked Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I'd highly recommend the Round House by Louise Erdrich. A bit more mature content than Diary, it's reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird but with a strong exposure to Ojibwe culture and issues.

Also, The Great Leader, by Jim Harrison. A faux-mystery, darkly comic, The Great Leader follows a retired Michigan police detective on a quest to solve one last case--catching a dangerous cult leader, following him across the country. The pace is patient and contemplative, the prose fantastic. Themes of aging, purpose, and wrestling with one's vices permeate the book.

I have three books I'd like to recommend. All are the first in a series.

Clash of Eagles, by David SmaleRome never fell, and now the empire is coming to the new world. Of course, the new world is already well populated by complex societies, and they aren't keen to become Roman provinces. It's a real 'clash of civilizations' kind of story, and I enjoyed following the protagonist's attempts to build a place for himself in an alien society. The subsequent books do a great job of raising the stakes as the protagonist starts to make more of a home in Nova Hesperia.

Dark Eden, by Chris BeckettOn an alien world, the great-grandchildren of a group of spacefaring castaways try to live according to the tenants set down by their ancestors, risking ecological and social collapse by doing so. This one was a lot of fun to read because it was like being present for the first telling of a creation myth, or the first days of a schism between orthodox and reformist clerics.

Sword of the Bright Lady, by Max PlanckOh man. Remember Captain N, the Game Master? Regular dude gets transported into the world of videogames? That's what SofBL reminds me of. This one I think you might be most interested in, because Planck has done a solid job building a world that is ready to be turned into a pen-and-paper RPG. Hell, reading it, I think that's what he really wants to do.

Pretty much anything by Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany, better known as "Lord Dunsany".

I would particularly recommend The Gods of Pegana and The Book of Wonder; both are in the public domain and can be easily found on the Net - I believe gutenberg.org has them. The first is an attempt to make from scratch a complete mythology, the second is a deconstruction of mythological tales, and they're both fantastic. And fairly short!

_________________"The key of strategy is not to choose a path to victory, but to choose so that all paths lead to victory." -- Lois McMaster Bujold, The Vor Game

I have no idea if you have come across these before or not. These follow seven people on a pilgrimage to the see Shrike on a distant planet. The first book, Hyperion, tells the stories of how each person came to be on the trip (very much like a collection of short stories) and the second book concludes with the interaction with the Shrike. The work alludes to the poem of the same name by Keats.

I cannot recommend these highly enough, not just to Rob but to anyone that has a love of science fiction and of reading.

Well, I don’t know whether any of these would be your cup of tea, but here are some of the best novels I’ve read in the last few years.

Elizabeth Wein, Code Name Verity. A terrific WWII novel. Like Erfworld, it deals with big issues and has a twisty plot.

John Scalzi, Redshirts. Another one that looks at the big issues, with deadpan snarky humor and characters you can’t help but care about.

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life. Another WWII story, this time from the civilian side. Won a Newbery Honor and multiple other awards, and bloody well deserved to, IMHO.

Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Good fantasy is hard to write. Valente succeeds spectacularly.

Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion. Speaking of good fantasy. Bujold’s work ranges from very good to outstanding; this is near the top of the list. The sequel, Paladin of Souls, is in some ways even better.

Gary D. Schmidt, The Wednesday Wars. A classic bildungsroman that I could not put down.

Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog. It’s difficult to know what to say about this one. It’s subtle and very mature, and only mature readers will appreciate it, I think; but they will find it unforgettable.

Sort of similar to Erfworld's plot, but that's not a bad thing; the Three-Body Trilogy has, or at least had a massive Chinese fanbase and perhaps a few shout-outs could draw in newer fans.

In The Dark Forest, technologically superior aliens (think God-tech, except STL) are using STL in an STL universe to prepare for an invasion of Earth, and they've used their advanced technology to gain near-absolute surveillance on human activity and block human physics research, preventing humans from bridging the technology gap. The only hole in alien (Trisolaris) technology is human cogition, for in this universe, human consciousness operates at a quantum level. Consequently, the UN empowers four men to devise secret and innovative plans to defeat the aliens. The catch? They must also deceive the entirety of humankind, for if their plan is compromised, the aliens will be able to devise a counter through their god-tech.

The first three are somewhat expected, an American military genius, a Venezuelan guerrilla mastermind, and a British neuroscientist. The fourth, however, is more bizarre: a dissolute and evidently incompetent Chinese (this is translated from the Chinese, after all) academic in the soft sciences.

All four men, devise or fail to devise, innovative and cunning strategies, and one by one, each of their plans are penetrated by the aliens, who have their human agents respond: "The Lord does not care", meaning that it would be useless against their god-tech. As to the last... well, there's a sequel, but read the book, it's pretty fascinating in its portrait of an "intellectual".

I'm suggesting this story because it starts off with a similar premise as Erfworld with a protagonist in a mundane job who is forcefully pulled into a strange reality that constantly borrows concepts of 'our' reality into itself. Other than that, the author took a completely different road in where he was going. The plot picks up fast and you should know if you want to keep reading within the first chapter. It's young adult, adventure, mystery, humorous and with a level of imagination that I really don't find in most authors.

The full text is online on his website, but, there are also paperback books for sale out there if you enjoy cradling a book between your hands.

Teaser from Ch. 1:

"Dave Smith could, by many metrics, be considered the least interesting person alive. He had no "life" in the 1990s definition of it, i.e. "Get a life, you loser." He had little personality to speak of, unless blandness was coming back into fashion, 1950s-style. The universe would have casually overlooked his life and death without really missing out on much.

In fact, the universe did exactly that. Fortunately for Dave Smith, "the" universe was not the only universe paying attention to him.

This would prove to be tremendously important when the very next day, he’d meet someone who’d change his path forever, his apartment would be destroyed, he’d lose everyone he ever knew or loved, and he would nearly be killed in the most horrific manner imaginable."

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum